EMV FAQ’s

EMV, or Europay MasterCard Visa, is a fraud-reducing techology that can help protect issuers, merchants and consumers against losses from the use of counterfeit and lost or stolen payment cards at the point-of-sale. Consumer payment applications are held in a secure chip, integrated into the credit card. Unlike magnetic-stripe cards, every time an EMV-card is used for payment, the card chip creates a unique dynamic cryptogram transaction code for every transaction. That cannot be used again.

For merchants who don’t have EMV-capable equipment, purchasing new or upgrading existing terminals or POS systems will not be costly. There are many options today that are EMV-ready and also include Near Field Communication technology that can be used for Apple Pay. If needed, upgrading to new equipment will be much less expensive than the cost of liability in the event of fraud.

A chip card is a plastic payment card with a microchip that is virtually impossible to duplicate because every single purchase is assigned its own encrypted transaction data when the card is inserted into the device. Alternatively, when the magnetic stripe of a card is swiped through the device, data from the magnetic stripe is captured and included in the transaction request, and the same exact data is used for every purchase, making information easier to duplicate and steal.

A customer will insert their EMV-card into the bottom slot of a terminal. The card remains in the terminal for the duration of the transaction. The chip validates the transaction authorization data and the transaction amount.

Liability for fraudulent transactions will move to the weakest link in the transaction. If a consumer uses a magnetic stripe in an EMV-capable terminal and the transaction turns out to be fraudulent, liability will rest with the issuer of the original magnetic stripe card. However, if a user uses a magnetic stripe card for a fraudulent transaction on a terminal which cannot process EMV, the liability for the fraud will rest with the merchant.

The magnetic stripes on traditional credit and debit cards store static data. Whoever accesses that data gains the senstive card and cardholder information necessary to make purchases. This makes traditional cards prime targets for counterfeiters, who convert stolen card data to cash. If someone copies a magnetic stripe, they can easily replicate that data over and over again because it doesn’t change.

If a hacker stole the EMV-chip information from one specific point-of-sale, typical card duplication would never work because the stolen transaction number created in that instance wouldn’t be useable again and the card would just get denied. Unlike magnetic-stripe cards, every time an EMV-card is used for payment, the card chip creates a unique dynamic cryptogram transaction code for every transaction that cannot be used again.

EMV technology will not prevent data breaches from occuring, but it will make it much harder for criminals to successfully profit from what they steal. Experts hope it will help significantly reduce card-present fraud in the U.S., which has doubled in recent years as criminals have shied away from countries that have already transitioned to EMV-cards.

Not necessarily. EMV-cards can also support contactless card reading, also know as Near Field Communication (NFC). Instead of inserting an EMV-card, NFC-equipped cards are tapped against a terminal scanner than can pick up the card data from the embedded computer chip. This method allows for a faster checkout process with contactless apps such as Apple Pay and Google WalletTM./x_accordion_item]

Yes and no. Chip-enabled cards are the norm in most other countries that support EMV technology. So customers with chip-and-signature cards may still find merchants who are unwilling or unable to process their card, even though it does have an embedded chip.